Sunderland out of Dakar Rally, Villas-Boas crashes

San Juan De Marcona (Peru), Jan 10 (AP) British
motorcyclist Sam Sunderland abandoned his Dakar Rally title
defense Tuesday due to back pain, and Portuguese soccer coach
Andre Villas-Boas was taken to a hospital after his car
crashed against a sand dune.

Rally organizers said Sunderland, the overall leader on a
KTM, withdrew near the end of the 330-kilometer (205-mile)
special around San Juan de Marcona when he was hurt after a
jump.

Adrien van Beveren of France won the fourth stage in
about four hours. He also moved into the overall lead, taking
a 1:55 advantage over Pablo Quintanilla of Chile.

In the car race, the 40-year-old Villas-Boas was in 43rd
position for team Toyota at the time of his accident. There
was no word on whether the former Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham
coach was staying in the competition.

Another Frenchman, Sebastien Loeb, won the car stage
after dueling with defending champion and Peugeot teammate
Stephane Peterhansel.

Loeb and Peterhansel swapped checkpoint leads. Loeb
finally led through the fourth and last checkpoint while
Peterhansel, whose overall lead wasn't in trouble, stopped to
change a tire hanging off the rim.

Loeb beat Carlos Sainz by 95 seconds, followed by
Peterhansel for a Peugeot sweep of the podium.
Peterhansel leads overall by 6:55 over Loeb.

The former champions who started the day second and third
overall dropped out of title contention.

Cyril Despres, the five-time champion on a bike who was
lying second in a car, had a broken rear wheel after hitting a
rock at about 180 kilometers, and his rally appeared over.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, the two-time champion who won stages one
and three, became stuck in sand three times and fell almost an
hour off the pace.

Also, Nani Roma, a winner in the car and bike categories,
didn't start the stage after crashing at the end of the third
on Monday. He was airlifted to a Lima hospital with head and
neck injuries. His X-Raid team said he suffered no fractures